MARYSVILLE — The fourth annual holiday bazaar on the Marysville Getchell High School campus on Dec. 14 was its biggest yet, with 117 vendors in the MG gymnasium drawing an estimated 900 shoppers that Saturday, which generated $3,175 in revenue, or about $2,700 in profit, for the school’s Future Business Leaders of America.

Kris Mikesell of the Marysville Getchell School for the Entrepreneur, who serves as the faculty advisor for the MG FBLA, noted that this event began four years ago with only 35 vendors, and attributed the increase since then to effective promotion and positive experiences for the vendors themselves.

“After glancing over the reviews from the vendors, they were happy to be part of this year’s event, and are already looking forward to next year,” Mikesell said. “The kids are getting the word out to the vendors, and the vendors appreciate how the kids go the extra mile with customer service, by loading shoppers’ cars for them.”

While virtually all of the student volunteers who coordinated the event are enrolled in the School for the Entrepreneur, and most are part of FBLA, other students had clubs and other organizations on site representing all four Marysville Getchell Small Learning Communities, including the Academy of Construction and Engineering, the Bio-Med Academy and the International School of Communications.

“Our shoppers love all the help they get from the students, as well as the great variety of vendors’ products and foods,” Mikesell said. “As this becomes a well-known and established annual event, more and more shoppers and vendors alike are catching on, which helps our FBLA defray the costs of participating in state and national-level business-related events.”

For those who missed the holiday bazaar this winter, Mikesell encouraged them to visit the Marysville Getchell High School campus on May 3, 2014, for the MG FBLA’s third annual spring bazaar, which she expects will be run even more efficiently.

“For next year’s bazaars, we’ll have a better idea of the floor plan,” Mikesell said. “We’re getting more experience on how to maximize this floorspace.”

Mikesell credited School for the Entrepreneur senior Franqui Rojas with coordinating much of the event, while Rojas, who’s been in FBLA since her freshman year, insisted that Mikesell had made the process of preparing for and conducting the holiday bazaar relatively easy.

“The first week of this school year, Mikesell asked if I’d mind taking this on,” said Rojas, who’s aiming to enter the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business. “From September through December, it’s been a crazy amount of work for everyone, but I like crazy. I loved planning this out and talking to all the vendors, because I’d like to plan events like this for my career.”

“This has been a great opportunity to help these students experience event-planning and exercise their business skills,” Mikesell said. “It’s all organized by the students themselves. All I do is contact the vendors. The students did a great job, and I’m so proud of them. They problem-solved, practiced outstanding customer service and worked very hard.”